446.
A CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL PANEL
Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
49,5 x 39 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4191.
Similar cloisonné panels were very popular especially during the eighteenth century, used to decorate the rooms of the imperial palaces (Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Enamels II. Cloisonné in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing 2011, pls. 133-148). They could be used on screen and furnitures, or simply like framed hanging plaques.
The objects depicted on this plaque (from right to left, an incense burner on a wooden stand, a group of five scrolls, a baluster vase holding branches of plum and other flowers, a large basin on a bronze pedestal with two birds, lingzhi funguses, a small rock and some feathers) belong to the ‘One Hundred Antiques’ (baigutu), a group of objects related to the attributes of scholars, to ritual implements, musical instruments and other culturally significant objects. This motif became popular toward the mid seventeenth century, widely used in all the fields of Chinese art.
For a group of related decorated panels see H. Brinker – A. Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné. Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zürich 1985, nn. 307-310; another panel with a similar composition, Qianlong period, is in the Brooklyn Museum, New York (inv. 09.551).
